Fresh from Iowa, the New Top Tier…Updated!

Well there you have it folks, your new and shiny “top tier.” And it was a pretty good horse race too, huh? Right down to the wire.

Remember me earlier today talking about New Advent, and keeping up with spiritual posts? Well I was pleased to find this myth-busting post by Ryan McMacken entitled, 6 Myths Catholics Tell About Libertarians. You should go check it out and see if it reminds you of any solid Catholic teaching. Solidarity, subsidiarity, and maybe even shades of distributism. Wacky, crazy, and downright un-Amurikin.

For example, Just War doctrine? Phooey on that! Don’t you know how dangerous Iran isn’t? Rule number 1 for two out of three fellows in the Top Tier: the Pentagon doesn’t know diddly squat. Besides, rattling swords is cool! You can look at yourself in the mirror while you wave that thing around and no harm will come to you. And everybody knows that wars of self-defense are for pansies! We build empires around here. And our military thank us for giving them a job too.

My friend Mark Shea notes that aside from Krazy Ron Paul, we have the renowned Empty Suit, complete with deep pockets and a check book you have to see to believe; and the latest, greatest, come from behind, Cinderella story, Just War Doctrine discarding Right (Correct?) side of the Cafeteria, Catholic candidate, representing the saber rattling Chicken Hawk war and torture Party: rrrrrrrrrRRRRick Santorum!

But Mark says all of that way better than I do. And maybe Chaucer does an even better job, if not quite as truthful,

Oh! The excitement of the Kubuki Theater as it moves on to Delaware, naturally without any ado. Or depending on which strategist played their cards right, skip that contest and head straight to South Carolina. I wonder if any of the candidates have the wherewithal to undo what our esteemed Congress passed by a landside, and which our great and good God King signed into law, this past Saturday? There I go getting all nostalgic for freedoms I put my life on the line for all those years.

Welcome to the Circus Maximus, where the “bread” floats on debt issuance, and the circus part is included at no extra charge. Cognitive dissonance is not in short supply, though, so please do come back for seconds!

UPDATE: Jon Stewart on the Top Tier…

Update II: Arguments for the Top Tier candidates.

Mark Shea on his qualified support for Ron Paul: Because he can be trusted with both your grandaughter and your wallet.

With the passage of the NDAA, I am now thoroughly persuaded that the dynamic in this country is no longer Left v. Right, but our Ruling Elites vs. the rest of us. Paul is that rare relic, a man of principle (even if his principles are sometimes rather kooky and prefer the diagram over the human being). He is also, quite obviously, a *good* man: virtually the only man in Congress I would trust alone with my grand-daughter or my wallet. He is unalterably opposed to the Crony Capitalist Police State that the overwhelming majority of his fellow lawmakers (led by our President) wish to erect. Since he does not ask me to support grave intrinsic evil and he *does* get that fact, I back him. When (not if) he is defeated, I will either support some other candidate who shares his views or write him in. My vote will not change the outcome of the election, but it will change me if I choose to support the enemies of America who just stripped us of habeas corpus, who wish to be a torture/abortion state, and who are eager plunge us into another pre-emptive war in defiance of the Catechism.

Matthew Archbold with help from George Will on why you should support Rick Santorum: Because he exposed the monstrous lies of Pro-Aborts in Congress. Mr. Will writes,

The complaint that Iowa is not a typical American state is true but trivial because there is no such state. Can you name one whose political culture, closely considered, is more like than unlike any other state’s? Anyway, someplace has to go first, and it should be somewhere the natives are receptive and media are not decisive, so marginal candidates have a sporting chance to become central.

Rick Santorum has become central because Iowa Republicans ignored an axiom that is as familiar as it is false: Democrats fall in love, and Republicans fall in line. Republicans, supposedly hierarchical, actually are — let us say the worst — human. They crave fun. Supporting Mitt Romney still seems to many like a duty, the responsible thing to do. Suddenly, supporting Santorum seems like a lark, partly because a week or so ago he could quit complaining about media neglect and start having fun, which is infectious.

Simcha Fisher on why you should support Mitt Romney.

Yes, I resent the political machine which drags up these ridiculous stooges and waits for us to take responsibility for voting for them. The guy is an empty suit. I see this. I used to be so angry at the Republicans, and say that they were just as bad as the Democrats — that there was no real difference, just a different flavor of corruption.

Well, after life with Obama, I think differently. I would be immensely grateful to have a president who only does a little bit of harm, instead of striding around the globe with a meat cleaver, the way Obama has done. All right?

So that’s why I’m voting for Romney. I don’t really think he’s terribly pro-life . . . but he’s not avidly pro-abortion, like Obama. I don’t really think he gets what’s so bad about Romneycare . . . but he’s not going to use heathcare as a Catholic-persecuting machine, like Obama did. I’ll be voting against Obama, and I think I have a serious responsibility to do that. I’m not thinking about four years down the road, or what “message” I’m sending to the GOP by appearing to support a joke like Romney. I’m just trying to stop the bleeding.

But who is Frank voting for? That depends on who makes the ballot in my state on Super Tuesday. If Ron Paul makes the ballot, he gets my vote. Come November, though, I won’t be voting for the incumbent. That much is sure.